Riding the Slipstream

I watched the Tony Robinson/Carte Blanche exposé on modern grail hunters and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code last night. (Damn, I really need to find me a more interesting passtime). I have read the book and I regard it as one of the better fictional novels I have read in a while. As for the contents… controversial and even shocking though it may be… it got me thinking. Although I consider myself a Christian and a believer, there aren't many few things that can get me to contemplate my beliefs and to think about my faith. This book managed to get me to do that ... even to the point where I began reading the Bible again, and eagerly surfed the internet to check the facts and truths put forward in the book. It was therefore with much anticipation that I sat down last night to watch The Real Da Vinci Code . In many ways it confirmed (to a degree) suspicions and thoughts I already had on some key issues in the book and in other ways it completely rendered null and void that which I regarded as true. No harm done, there is great power in knowledge…and I thrive on learning and debate and I am not one to let my own notions close me off from the truth. Admittedly, his views were based on specific pieces of information he had gathered in his quest to find the truth and I sometimes struggled with the interpretation and conclusions he reached. I thought on more than one occasion that perhaps he was biased towards satisfying his own goals. It also seemed that the program had been edited to reach the only logical it could reach… Robinson's viewpoint. But having said that, there was (and still is) validity to his arguments, in some cases more so than in others. Some beliefs and opinions (both for and against) were challenged with much vigor while others were accepted even though I felt that perhaps there was more to them than was alluded to by Robinson. The most annoying thing about the exposé was Tony Robinson himself. I found him to be a highly annoying, almost arrogant, and smug little man… a personification of all things I despise. Imagine, there I was watching this very interesting piece of investigative journalism and all I could think of was that I do not like Tony Robinson. My feelings had no relevance to the content of his exposé and were based entirely on who I perceived him to be and how he came across on television. I hated every friggin’ little thing about him. I disliked his mannerisms, his disregard of other people and their theories and could not help but think that he was perhaps not as “unbiased” as he had professed to be at the start of the program. Perhaps they deserved be treated this way, after all if Robinsonwas to be believed, they had deceived others (or had themselves been deceived ) and had played significant roles in perpetrating an elaborate hoax. In the midst of being bombarded with fact and fantasy alike, my only prevailing thought was;”Damn, I dislike this guy!” He could have filmed a documentary on the life and times of the African dung beetle, for all I cared, and I would have disliked him all the same. If I had it in me I would have reached into my television and strangled him. Worst of all my dislike of him detracted from the true value of the program… I actually wanted someone to make him look bad… I wanted the facts to contradict what he said, just for the sake of it. How odd it is that I can dislike someone I do not know solely based on my perceptions. It may be mere human nature to feel this way about someone, but I hate how petty I have become! Sigh…